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Get the latest as our experts share their insights on global energy policy.
The conflict between Iran, Israel, and now the United States has yet to disrupt energy supplies to global markets. However, the US decision to attack Iran's nuclear program...
Hear in-depth conversations with the world’s top energy and climate leaders from government, business, academia, and civil society.
California has long led the nation in pioneering clean air regulations, from grappling with smog to setting ambitious zero-emission vehicle mandates. The Golden State's unique authority under the...
Find out more about our upcoming and past events.
This year, the Third Annual Energy Opportunity Lab (EOL) Forum will take place July 7th and 8th in Washington, DC, offering a chance for the Washington policymaking community...
Past Event
November 16, 2022
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Sanctions have become the go-to foreign policy tool for the United States. Coercive economic measures such as trade tariffs, financial penalties, and export controls affect large numbers of companies and states across the globe. Some of these penalties target nonstate actors, such as Colombian drug cartels and Islamist terror groups; others apply to entire countries, including North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, and Russia. U.S. policy makers see sanctions as a low-cost tactic, but in reality these measures often fail to achieve their intended goals — and their potent side effects can harm American interests.
Backfire, the new book by Agathe Demarais, the global forecasting director of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), explores the surprising ways sanctions affect multinational companies, governments, and ultimately millions of people around the world. Drawing on interviews with experts, policymakers, and people in sanctioned countries, Demarais examines the unintended consequences sanctions can have when used as a diplomatic weapon. The proliferation of sanctions spurs efforts to evade them, as states and firms seek ways to circumvent U.S. penalties. This is only part of the story. Sanctions also reshape relations between countries, pushing governments that are at odds with the U.S. closer to each other — or, increasingly, to Russia and China.
Full of insights spanning a wide range of topics, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Iran’s COVID response and China’s cryptocurrency ambitions, Backfire reveals how sanctions are transforming geopolitics and the global economy — as well as diminishing U.S. influence. This insider’s account is an eye-opening, accessible, and timely book that sheds light on the future of sanctions in an increasingly multipolar world.
The Center on Global Energy Policy and the Center for a New American Security hosted a fireside chat with Agathe Demarais moderated by Edward Fishman, CGEP Senior Research Scholar, CNAS Adjunct Senior Fellow, and former member of Secretary of State John Kerry’s Policy Planning Staff. Their discussion focused on key findings of Backfire, the latest Columbia University Press release in the Center on Global Energy Policy series.
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On the night of June 12, the Israeli military conducted widespread strikes on sites in Iran that targeted the country’s nuclear program and its senior military leadership.
The relationship between the US and Canada, each of which is the other’s principal source of imported energy, has become increasingly fraught in recent months. Canada and the...
Please join the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA for a rapid response briefing with Kadri Simson, CGEP Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Institute of Global Politics Carnegie Distinguished Fellow,...
Energy finance is transforming rapidly amid shifting political and economic dynamics in the U.S. and globally. As the landscape becomes increasingly complex, we will explore key legal insights,...
And coal communities and fracking villages and all the rest.
An asset-backed equipment finance programme would be just the boost US companies need
The Climate Finance (CliF) Vulnerability Index is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of climate vulnerability for nation states in order to improve the targeting and provision of climate change adaptation financing.
